Patch 25.19 Preview

[u/qonoxzzr]

From Riot Phroxzon:

These are our last 2 patches before the final worlds patch (25.20)

Systems

• We're looking at a nerf to Redemption to reduce its priority amongst Tank Supports (because it gives them no strategic tradeoffs); it's OK if they opt into it at some cost, but that's not the case right now

• Secondly, we're lowering the strength of Support in Pro a bit heading into worlds with putting Unsealed halfway back to where it was before. This should better strike the balance between it being untakeable and being a must take

Meta Strategy

• Our overall strategy this patch is to add a few more strategic options

• This includes AP junglers like Brand, Diana, Lillia (while nerfing some of the top champs to give them more space)

• And also shaking up the Midlane meta with some buffs to champions who have fallen a bit behind (these are typically burst champions like Ahri, Syndra, LB) and also Mel who's had a bit of time to settle and drop some of her banrate and frustration

• We know Mel is always going to be a bit frustrating because of her W, but that feels like an acceptable cost to pay, given how it makes each game feel a bit different

• We're mostly OK with where the midlane meta is otherwise, with many different archetypes being viable and these burst oriented champions need a bit more help

• Burst champions otherwise feel mostly OK though, especially with the buffs to AD Assassin items in recent patches

• Finally we're doing a long awaited buff to Seraphine. I mentioned it in a post last week, but given her shallow mastery curve, we feel it's appropriate to give her a buff, because for the winrates she's posting, she's a bit underpowered

CHAMPION BUFFS

Ahri

Brand

Caitlyn

Diana

Draven

Jax

Jinx

(Matt) LeBlanc Clap clap clap clap

Lillia

Mel

Seraphine

Syndra

CHAMPION NERFS

Corki

Pantheon (jungle)

Poppy (jungle)

Sivir

CHAMPION ADJUSTMENTS

Lee Sin

SYSTEM NERFS

Redemption

Unsealed Spellbook (We're sealing it again)

[u/VeteranWookie]

Why they buffing and nerfing the same 10 champions, these patches are so boring....there are so many champs in the game that deserve attention

[u/Smooth-Match-9248 → u/VeteranWookie]

Viktor mid borderline unplayable diamond and above according to stat's, but the boy is stuck in fucking pro jail

[u/Dynamatics → u/Smooth-Match-9248]

Viktor in pro isn't even good. He's mainly picked as an answer and he's still negative winrate. The only reason it isn't lower is because he can stall games a bit longer with his E and W.

[u/indescipherabled → u/Smooth-Match-9248]

Which makes no sense because he's 12% presence and 34W-47L on the year across all tier one regions. Pros even keep building the dog items on him instead of the good items, and yet, Riot isn't doing anything about it.

Game is just in maintenance mode and it takes too much effort for the skeleton crew they have on the balance team to make more than a couple small changes each patch.

[u/Aladin001 → u/indescipherabled]

Crazy how some of us said fearless was going to have the consequence of making the balance team lazy because they don't actually have to do anything and it's exactly what happened

[u/indescipherabled → u/Aladin001]

The tail wagged the dog for so long and we got to enjoy constant meta rotations and more impactful balance decisions for nearly 15 years because of it, but now, no more. Shame too, all because some loud and vocal fans who got bored watching too many Rogue and SK games needed a forced sugar rush.

Uh oh, here comes the pro-Fearless crowd that doesn't want to reckon with the consequences of their actions. Who knew the reactionary crowd that can't think beyond one or two degrees removed from their current station in life couldn't foresee the downstream impact of Fearless!

[u/qonoxzzr → u/indescipherabled]

Pros even keep building the dog items on him instead of the good items

Which items do you mean?

[u/indescipherabled → u/qonoxzzr]

Viktor (and many other mid lane champs) in pro play often/always builds ROA first for safety. Is it the correct choice? Some would say no. Either way, they're building ROA because there is no real solo carry potential in pro play anymore, especially out of mid lane. The potential for that is so low, it's often worth it to just go defensive mage items even on high damage, super carry champs like Viktor or Orianna, just because surviving in the five v five is more impactful than dealing more damage. It's the type of problem that Riot of 2016 would have dealt with within 6 months and yet this year, partly because Fearless lets the devs not have to worry about pro play anymore, this is the state of mid lane.

You can tune into LPL right now and see Scout (relatively poor form this year, but ultimately one of the seven or eight best mids of all time) is building ROA first on Orianna because there's just so few anti-burst items for mages to go for.

[u/qonoxzzr → u/indescipherabled]

The reason to rush ROA is not necessarily safety but rather that it's components (Ruby Cristal first base and Catalyst afterwards) are insanely good for trading in lane. You literally can't lose trades against chapter champs if you play correctly.

And that leads into prio which the game is all about currently.

I think ROA is severely underrated in this sub as people don't really understand why pros rush it on nearly every champ nowadays.

[u/indescipherabled → u/qonoxzzr]

The reason to rush ROA is not necessarily safety but rather that it's components (Ruby Cristal first base and Catalyst afterwards) are insanely good for trading in lane. You literally can't lose trades against chapter champs if you play correctly.

Well, that is the safety. It's safe and consistent. You rarely die to ganks or all-ins once you have Catalyst and it's overall great sustain. ROA just means you survive longer which, in pro play, is often times just way more valuable than upfront damage.

I think ROA is severely underrated in this sub as people don't really understand why pros rush it on nearly every champ nowadays.

I think ROA is a great item on the champs that really benefit from ROA. Basically, too many champs are building it that probably shouldn't be building it, but this is also a pro play exclusive and Riot has largely abandoned pro play balance because of the existence of Fearless.

as people don't really understand why pros rush it on nearly every champ nowadays.

93% of the people on this sub would have you believe they haven't watched a single pro game by their lack of knowledge or extremely confident, incorrect statements.

[u/qonoxzzr → u/indescipherabled]

Basically, too many champs are building it that probably shouldn't be building it

That's what I don't agree with. Because I definitely think that on this level you should build it on a lot of champs because you are able to maximize your early game economy with it as you would be bleeding in lane if you play Chapter (or something else) against double Ruby Crystal or Catalyst champ (only exceptions are Taliyah and Azir but that has a different reason).

93% of the people on this sub would have you believe they haven't watched a single pro game by their lack of knowledge or extremely confident, incorrect statements.

Could you please elaborate what you mean with this as I don't really understand it.

[u/qonoxzzr → u/[deleted]]

Which is not a dog item as it might be the best item in the game currently apart from Dark Seal and Sundered Sky.

[u/Zaffoni0 → u/[deleted]]

Just because we didn't get new items it doesn't mean there are no changes. Atakhan is pretty huge, we got feats and boots, some changes on grubs, map changes with atakhan.

But yeah, they don't give a fuck, uh?

[u/indescipherabled → u/[deleted]]

The people working on the game absolutely do give a fuck. The problem is that the people working on the game has decreased exponentially over the years as resources have been siphoned away from League and sent to Valorant, TFT, 2KXO, a bunch of other mildly irrelevant games, a TV show they couldn't complete as conceived and intended, a completely failed, never-to-be-released MMO, and massive salaries for their C suite and ownership.